Joyous Tomorrows

As I was looking for a recipe by my grandmother Lenora Gildon Langley to post on FamilySearch's Family Tree, I realized she did not have specialty recipes like we see today.  Grandma Langley was a pioneer camp cook in her methods.  Everything was cooked with bacon, and she used stuff from the garden.  There weren't steaks or chicken like we have now in abundance. They would kill their own chicken, dress it and most of the time, boil it with dumplings or noodles, and carrots.    My favorite memory of her was my early teen years.  She lived in a small house my dad had bought for her behind us.  When I got home from school, she would pull out her handy wash bowl full of flour and whip up some of her version of Indian fry bread and serve it up with homemade jelly or strawberry jam from the store. Sometimes, there was honey.  I watched her as she made it, so I continued to make this for my children as they grew up.  Yummy days.  I know ...

I love children’s creativity.   multi-media art by my granddaughter As my 6 children grew up, we would have a room full of toys and they would always go for the oatmeal box as a drum or my pots and pans. Don’t know how many spoons were taken outside for shovels, I still find some occasionally.   The youngest used a hanger to jump out of a loft to catch his fall… that didn’t turn out too well. (oh my)   However, there weren't any broken bones… the daughter twirling knives caused that. Laughing at the memories of the oldest son galloping across the yard with his stick horse his father and I had made for him.   He ended up on the front page of the local newspaper when he took it to town, and the reporter was amazed at a child that was happy with a toy that didn't do anything. Oh yeah it did.   It spurred imagination. Now that I have 23 grandchildren, it has been a delight seeing my grandchildren continuing in the world of imagination and creativ...